Character, and done this occasion we hope, they do their level best to remember for the rest of their lives what they have seen today. We have taken advantage of this occasion to extend a handshake, the United States of america, we look upon as their home, we looked at them because we feel deep down, must realize they came from this part of the world. In old new orleans, the sacrifices and heroism like the citizens committee, we meet Ernest John Wright and zachary frenzy who founded the Peoples Defense league in central city decades before the modernday civil rights movement, ultimate courage for the brave 6yearold girls, rudy bridges, and provost who challenged White Supremacy in 1960 and warriors, the lie and Robert Collins to the freedom writers. Other chapters of black life in new orleans, to the times and accomplishments of activist educator is since alexis who fought for decades to bring quality education to black children and new orleans has a lot of serious time but we like to party as everybody knows. I remember my parents coming home late at night with goodies from the plantation annual carnival dance. I was beholden to the second line parade that brought us up town and back. My neighbors were Mardi Gras Indians. 18 pages were dedicated to the mardi gras, chat across the age, the Mardi Gras Indians, baby dolls, zulu social and Pleasure Club and debutantes and society. There was a man named taylor who hosted a radio show called negro forum. About Marty Robbins nowhere in all of the u. S. A. As their celebrations so vast to universally observed mardi gras. There is an institution, rich, poor, middleclass, upperclass, catholic, protestant, gentile, white, black, everyone in new orleans conscious of any part of the enormous celebration, new orleans is ruled over by king is in queens in mardi gras, the royal family, regal splendor. Mardi gras is the most democratic monarchy you have ever seen and there are the Mardi Gras Indian families who roam, speak to the working class enablers, carnival dance, the customer class with lavish balls, so black life unveils the Hidden History of new orleans for the treasure and visitors to explore. Thank you. [applause] that was a beautiful presentation. Black life in new orleans. Are there any questions you have . Interesting. You had mentioned a man named zachary ramsey. A few more words. I heard the name but dont know okay. In the 1930s and 1940s was a man named ernest right. New orleans person, live in central city so in 1941 sack Richie Ramsay counted the Peoples Defense league and the Peoples Defense league, militant that time but most, ernest right did it but a lot of them were insurance, they had a tribute to them. Zachary ramsay was one of the people, he was an insurance person and was with the Peoples Defense league and they did a lot of stuff, working class people, they did a lot of stuff with Police Brutality and Ernest Wright challenged the system long before it was comfortable to do so, so that is who they were. I have a whole chapter on the Peoples Defense league, zachary ram. Any other questions . Thank you all for attending the presentation, more in depth doing a book signing from barnes and noble tent. For the rest of the session. Thank you. The Twelfth Annual louisiana book festival continues now from Lessons Learned from Hurricane Katrina and the deep water horizon disaster. Thank you very much. I will take up the least amount of time here. I am the editorinchief of University Press of mississippi, how delighted we are, to discuss this book with you. A privilege to publish these books because not only is it a good book that i enjoy reading but an important book. Andrea has information we felt the world needs to know about. Delighted to be here and thank you very much. We will have questions afterward. Good afternoon, thank you so much for braving the weather to be here. I am going to start a little bit with my background, where the book came from, this can be a little context, i net i worked in Television News for ten years before i got into academia and during that time in television i was really interested in breaking news and crisis news. I also got my masters at the same time i was working full time, my thesis turned out to be a study the delft with crisis communication about how the press response and covered crises. Being a practitioner and going into the academy is always important, my research that i was in force along, swing you get into academia writing papers and these books and wonder if anybody reads them. My goal was to be sure the research i do helped, and what better way to help the industry than 2 feet about and dissect what they do during crisis. And and we need to evacuate, or whatever it may be. Making sure that information gets to people and they get what they need to, do that in an ethical and accurate manner. So after i worked in tv, got my ph. D. In 2003, associate professor there and undergraduate study but as soon as i got there katrina happened. It started, began with katrina. Hand we decided to replicate those studies. They have their routines, make sure they get the story. It is different when covering two crises. It was after katrina that i met sharon roberts, my coauthor who is in say the nl. We started on up half of study. It started when i was sitting in my office which overlooks lsu but i am walking ambulances, traffic and all the authorities and everything coming over there, and i got a phone call from a friend from across the country who is scared to death for me wondering what is going on down there in louisiana. It really got me thinking about what do they see nationally in their News Coverage compared to what i am seeing here, that became the first study and started access. And victoria is at western kentucky and not here today. Two recordbreaking disasters within five years katrina hit, and five days later, almost the bp oil disaster. Gave an opportunity like i said sharon and i and victoria to look at our different studies and disasters to see how we cover them differently. They are two very different animals. If you think about Hurricane Katrina, you had flooding in the middle of american cities, access, you could get in and out, if you think of it is very similar if you think of it in that sense to the oil spill, also water but this one was 40 miles off the coast. The journalists and katrina had access to the city to a point, actually access to the site of the oil spill was not possible. After the rig exploded and after it sank, the scene of the crime is no longer verbage choppers out which they did at the beginning, very difficult to cover. The journalist ben had to rely on all of the sources from bp and other entities coming into the city and inform them what is going on. Katrina going to the source of the story and get the story. They have all their ties and connections to the city officials, authorities there in the city and so they were able to covered that story in a very different way as opposed to the oil spill. The reporters, this book, we interviewed over 100 people, most of those were journalists involved in the coverage of the disaster, they told us it was the very different situation, interviewing and covering katrina than it was the oil spill. For katrina it was very personal. After katrina, wwl in new orleans actually evacuated television studios, the times heck, 175yearold newspaper published everyday, three days for katrina, they didnt publish the actual version that they published online, they came up there as well. And did their reporting, going back and forth, to house them but on the day the levees broke, i was in the studio, they are showing, and the tops of the roofs showing, one of the producers burst into tears, and out of that sea of rooftops. She knew exactly where it was, could take it out. Very personal. They lost their homes, lost family members, the stretch of time, because of that these stories became very possible, almost became advocacy journalism. And the powers that be knew these were going on. Shift to bp, very possible, very different kind of coverage they had to do because they didnt go out and report. They were relying on bp officials parachuting in. Nobody from bp works every day like they were. When bp comes to town, focusing in candies in the coast guard, who do they want to speak to . Do they know who wwl is . They dont. They will go to the names that they know, coopers that are down here, national threats, because they are more familiar with them. They knew they were going to get to a larger audience. The journalist in katrina that covered katrina, now shifting into oil reporters, i dont want to say they got their feelings hurt, but they were pulitzer prizewinning journalists for their katrina coverage. They are ready, they know they can do this and are being bypassed in order to get to the national media. That was definitely something that was very different between the two disasters in terms of reporting on this and it wasnt that the oil spill was any less personal because it was, but a lot of them didnt loose actual physical property because of low oil spill. Very different. So expanding on this notion about local news and disaster, local news planes such an important role. We look to them when we are the ones in our town, when it is in our backyard. We look to local coverage to make sure we are getting information we need. Dont know about you guys but whenever a crisis hits the first thing id do is go on line, local newspaper in that town. I did that, the marathon and sandy hook happened, because i want to see what the local press is saying about that and if it does mirror what is going on nationally, the national crisis, they paint a broader brush and drill it down to specific things. There is a scholar perez lugo the maps out the Different Things the press should do during crisis, one of the things they talk about a social utility and what that is, to say we are all in this together. The press has that function of looking at or talking to their audiences with that aspect, we are all in this together, we are going to get through this. Almost like emotional support the we look for in our press when a local crisis hits. The National Press isnt going to say that but the local press, very emotional, very empathetic when they are reporting these crises and they are there to give assurances and hope we need during that time . Audiences look at that, we seek out information, theres actually a theory called anxiety reduction theory. We seek out information in times of crisis in order to reduce our anxiety. So that is why wwls website crashed during katrina. I talked about the newtown beach and the boston globe because it is in our nature to find out what is going on to help refresh our anxiety. So they had to make this unprecedented deal with yahoo to expand their bandwidth and get more information going so people were looking for the local news stations to get information. Local they play these different roles, they also frame things differently, as you know. National tends to frame things in the responsibility frame, so right after katrina the whole blame game began right lisa o on many Different Levels but that started, if he recall after bp hit, and remember what they called it, this is obamas katrina. From the very beginning the National Press to lay blame to somebody. And the recovery style, we give you those tools to get through that recovery. That is another function, not only utility but linkage in another responsibility of local press in crisis so what that means, i will give you an example. If you need to get your clothes washed, there will be a truck with washers and dryers, you wont find that in the National Press that you will find it in the local press because they are in together, someone will link you the information that you need to start in that recovery process. They serve very important roles, national, everybody across the nation and across the world needed to seat and get the information about katrina, they needed that information, but on the local level we knew what was going on. We needed a little bit more specific information. So they both have their place. I dont want to criticize one or the other but especially in crises like that, local news very important. Visuals and representations of disasters, one of the studies we did six weeks after an five years after and now we are in the process ten years waiter. And waiting for the anniversary to come and go, has asked people what the number one image of Hurricane Katrina is and they recall the rooftop rescue. That is a robust finding across two time periods, and find it ten years later. Is not one image, not necessarily what you think of that one crowning image, but so many rooftop rescues. Remember watching that coverage, rescue after rescue after rescue, it was repeated, it was the emotional, people saw that image, the crowning image in their mind right now so i was hoping to have some results that will not be a robust finding. When i talk to classes and groups i always ask what is the number one image . They always say rooftops. The other image, bp was different. Katrina, we have thousands and thousands and thousands of people in video and snapshot and you have to remember this was pre twitter, facebook was in its infancy. Free twitter and so i talk about it in the book, one of the meteorologist said he texted for the first time during katrina. With all the technology we didnt have how many images of katrina, the oil spill, visuals were limited, so we had the rig explosion and it syncing can be regans of oil that were on the surface of the water and then came the underwater cameras, gushing that the bottom of the ocean. And then six weeks into it what did we get . Boiled animals, which if you study crazies and especially oil crises it follows the same pattern so we knew that we were going to get this eventually. That kind of after this sustained crisis that went on for 90 days the News Coverage was very high and it went down a little bit and as soon as the oil burned, those pictures came to light, the cover shot back up again. Those visuals that you have drive the attention, that news story gets it so the visuals of the birds are similar to the crowning image, not one image but lots of them but those images, now it became real. It was very much so that disaster, an environmental disaster, will we see the effect on the birds . All you can see are the eyes that cant move, that is when it became real to a lot of the audience, the visual reference notations of the disaster, pictures that you see can influence that but they were limited. If you recall, that is the video they had. They had the burnt females, the containment vessels is the same video so bp is a little bit different. The video was somewhat limited. Katrina, all kinds of pictures and people talking about that. One other thingm let me finish talking about this and we will throw it to you. They had personal icons. What i mean by at is just what i said about the producer, in the newsroom, upset that she could pick out her house so when i was asking them of the number one image they would remember, it was not one of those media fed images. Many of the them said i sought my house and saw the coverage. The icecream store where my grandmother used to take me, i saw my school. You and i when we look at the same visuals we would see a flooded neighborhood. They could pick out these personal icons, those pictures were very personal. Five years later not as many personal icons, more time and that kind of thing. The reason we chose this picture with the x is because after katrina nobody mentioned x on the house, that was not a visual they remembered. Five years later they didnt. Depending what is in the media and over time, those issues your mind can change. I am going to let sharon introduce herself and let you talk a little about framing that. Good day. My name is sharon and i am an assistant professor at the university of new orleans. One of the reasons why i got interested in writing about Hurricane Katrina, from behindthescenes, was my own personal experience. I was dropping my internship at the time and about the stock masters degree, as a research assistant. The weekend of Hurricane Katrina was my first assignment as a weekend reporter so that saturday and sunday, i was hoping people, whenever they had in each, and sunday morning my editor said we pretty much have the whole team in place so i left sunday morning to go to baton rouge. After that are was able to have reporters at my apartment in baton rouge and some of the broadcast journalists in this city who andrea was helping to set up in the studio particularly from w. W. L so we were able to triage to observe what was going on in the katrina experience, and the decisions they were making, discussing the things they were experiencing at the time, this is one of the things that got me interested in studying this, the most iconic disasters of all time, the first record, wanted to understand what was going on in their mind as keepers of information for the public to understand what was the initial information and if they would do it over again or reflect on it, how it would be different. This is just to catch up to where we are in the presentation. And people who were responsible, the Major National crisis and those who were impacted by the disaster. What we described in our world is framing. The News Organization determined how it will package its information to you. Have an outcome. And what was the course of action, those who were lawmakers, the frames that came out, those who hold power hold it responsibly, who should be blamed . Who is responsible for people being stranded in different locations during katrina and who is responsible for the bp oil spill . One way the me at the time decided to package who is responsible we find particularly the federal government was held responsible in katrinas situation, initial analysis about fema director Michael Brown whose job was taken away from him pretty early on. There was the scapegoat initially but very iconic image coming got, president george w. Bush looking out over new orleans and seems a very remote, very detached, but reporters describe he was emotionally removed, that visual was also a way of framing blame at president george w. Bush. There is another image of president barack obama during the bp oil spill not being available and that was something he tried to correct after Hurricane Sandy where he was engaging with people who were affected but he was also considered as not being responsive and having the federal government respond with the oil spill disaster. Blameless one of the things we discovered in terms of framing, and you all remember the kanye west, doesnt care about black people, and move by and one of the reasons in that critique during the taliban was when you see white victims from new orleans with items in their hands, the assumption in the news narrative, they find what they need to survive and whenever we saw victims in the heat of the crisis with items it was assumed they were looting so the public who was outside of the region were receiving two different races in the city and they were given media analysis. What was the outcome of that framing . The outcome was there was the perception africanamericans in the city did not take responsibility for themselves, creating a situation of crisis, not acting in an organized manner, allout for martial law to be declared, criminal cases that were now being tried by Police Officers thinking there was a need to shoot one side. A lot of that framing results in actual actions taken by Law Enforcement and government officials at the time. The decision the media makes in terms of packaging, has a direct outcome on a president ial candidates, those who hold power , actions going forward. That is one of the reasons we wanted to study that. The old power point. In terms of the impact on journalism i was teaching my class this week and we were looking at one of the earliest natural disasters, this was the epic of gilgamesh written in mesopotamia and it was the story about a flood and a lot of people think this boy original writing or record talks about the flood of noaa so one of the things i thought was interesting was the record of this disaster which we consider to be one of the costliest disasters in u. S. History, natural disasters come as well as one that was the largest hurricane to make landfall in the u. S. Needed a record. The whole book is a record of what already exists in the media which is the rough cut of it. The impact on journalism is with climate change, the scale of disasters tripled or ten times worse than what we have seen before because of the way in which we have settled our civilization has evolved, housing and climate change. What does this mean for journalism . Initially, 2005 was the time when many newspapers were laying off a lot of journalists. It actually bought time, three years because they may have been on the chopping block the next year for downsizing their most veteran and seasoned journalists, but their owners decided they would keep everybody on the payroll for those who have been watching videos, laying off reporters. 20082009. Went every sort of worker in new orleans lost their jobs these journalists resumed because they determined the news was important at the time of the crisis. This is a lesson that a lot of schmooze organizations have to determine these sorts of issues we care about, how do we ensure we have resources that will provide the public with a moment of crisis . There is something we are concerned with, the impact of this bond journalism. Most people think of posttraumatic stress disorder as something foreign correspondents and u. S. Offices, marines, something journalists face when they have to cover a crisis when they themselves are also victims of it. One of the things we covered is not only in the new orleans markets, a lot of reporters are advocates, we are beginning to see that a lot of the focus for their community, something that still remains for them, a lot of reporters for the crisis, as we reached the tenth year anniversary. There is still a lot of psychological trauma in the city not just by many of the president s who are returning but by news workers and we see this play out as they address the issues facing the city after the disaster. Another thing we are concerned about when it comes to the improper journalism is access to information. Most people could not get on the internet. You couldnt get the hard copy of the paper. How are we going to transfer information in a crisis, the technology or communication blackout . Getting information News Organizations will refer their resources to ensure that crisis information is brought to the public through the news media but how do you as a public get the information you know you need to be able to if you are trapped in the situation get your information out and all these other things, we try to map a little bit when we wrote this book some of the ways in which the public were able to call radio stations which was e